The present invention relates to a device for recovering cartridge case for an automatic or semiautomatic firearm having an ejection window for the cases of fired cartridges, a loading handle, and a carrying handle with two spaced posts on the top of its frame, comprising a removable container with means for permitting the temporary attachment thereof to the firearm and an entrance opening intended to come opposite the ejection window for the cartridge cases in order to collect them during the firing.
Devices of this type have been developed in an attempt to solve in the best possible manner the problems relating to their manner of attachment to and detachment from the firearm for which they are intended.
The handling of the device necessary by the detachment and particularly the successive reattachments of the container in order to recover the cases collected may in fact result in losses in time and irritation, and it is desirable to make these operations as simple and rapid as possible.
Depending on the position of the loading handle with respect to the ejection window for the fired cartridge cases, it may be difficult or inconvenient to reach said handle for manual rearming necessary for instance upon a change of the clip or else after each small series of shots upon practice.
The fact of having to detach the container in such cases may also result in a loss of time and irritation upon training and it is desirable in such cases to facilitate access to the loading handle.
Devices for the recovery of cartridge cases which are specifically suitable for firearms having a carrying handle on the top of their frame and a loading handle on the rear of the breech have been developed.
These devices, described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,739,685, U.S. Pat. No. 4,028,834 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,375 have the feature in common that they comprise a first means of attachment to the firearm consisting of a holding flange which caps the top of the frame of the firearm between the two posts of the carrying handle. A second attachment means is formed either by a boss on the bottom of the container, held by threading in an element attached to the side of the firearm, as in the first document cited, or by a clip collar intended to surround and grip the barrel of the firearm in front of the cartridge case ejection window as in the second document cited, or by a pin which can be inserted through hinge elements connecting the bottom of the container to the frame of the firearm, two of these elements being attached to the latter in front of and behind the ejection window below it, as in the third document. In the first said document, the container has a cover the opening of which, by pivoting, makes it possible to withdraw the recovered cases. In the second document, the container is a flexible bag of netting mounted on a frame which pivots downward to permit the recovery of the cases. In the third document, the container is detachable from its attachment means by a so-called VELCRO tape entrance frame.
The said known devices, however, are not suitable for firearms with carrying handle having a loading handle on the top of the firearm between the two posts of said handle, due to the presence there of their first attachment means formed by their retaining flange. They are not adapted furthermore to facilitate access to a loading handle of a firearm on which this handle is arranged in the region of the ejection window for the cases of the cartridges fired.